Still Here
by NowakiStar
Summary: Damien never asked to be gay. He never asked for his parents to hate him or for the constant drama. -/- Tells the story of Damien before coming to the House of Night. Damien x OC. Re-written.
1. Still Here

_Okay, the tester chapter didn't go as I'd hoped. So I'm rewriting this! Thank you to those who've commented! _

_A Beta for all of my DJ stories would be very much loved since Derek is moving away. :(_

_**~N.S~**_

Miracles were something I'd stopped believing in when I was a child.

My parents were people of Faith. They truly were good people at heart. However, good people often made mistakes. They could be misled, like everyone else. And they didn't always do good things.

I realized this the first time they caught me kissing another guy.

-/-

"You know, we should just ditch the movie." Kyle said, leaning against the doors to the theater. He had the cute-nerd look. He wore glasses, and once had braces, but they weren't unattractive. His clothes usually screamed "mathlete" or "dork." But, in a way, it was pretty cute. Then again, he had a round face. He could make anything look cute with that.

Kyle Wolfram was the perfect example of why not to judge a book by it's cover. His looks could misled you to believe he was shy and sweet. But, in reality, he had a fiery-personality. Kyle acted on a whim, he was untamable.

"I thought you wanted to see this one."

"It's not like we have much of a choice." He glared over at the ticket booth. Kyle was still pissed off that we had to have a parent accompany us to an R-rated movie. You know, to a movie aimed toward teenagers.

"We can see something else." I tried. Kyle and I had been secretly dating for months now. We'd been rivals back in grade school, playground nemesis's. Funny how Middle School changes everything.

_By our second year, we were both out of the closet. People joked that we were together. Told jokes like:_

Kyle, Damien and Drew go into a bar. There's only one stool. How do they all sit down?

Dunno.

They flip it over and sit on the stool legs.

_Drew was my best and only real friend, but he was dragged into the fun as well. It seems a gay can't be friends with a straight guy without wanting to jump him every second of everyday. My girl friends hinted that I ought to just ask him out. He already sit at the opposite end of our lunch-table, alone. No one else would take him._

_It wasn't until the end of 8__th__ grade that we started actually talking to one another. Kyle was the Math-Geek, I was the English/Grammar-Geek. We were in the same AP science class and had been, conveniently, seated beside each other._

"_Fag" was scratched onto his locker the next day. Science was our first period class, so he'd only just discovered the vandalism. He was late to class, and when he finally showed up his face was still red from crying._

"_You okay?"_

"_I'm fine."_

_But he didn't look fine. He looked like someone who'd gone through hell and somehow managed to come back. Although, he hadn't been spared completely. He had wounds._

_I had slung am arm around him and told him everything would be okay. I didn't know what to tell him really. But, touching Kyle felt right. Good, somehow. Maybe it was because he didn't freak out and push me away._

_By the end of the school year, we had our chairs pushed together and hands entangled on my lap._

"Nah, let's just go to Starbucks until it's time to go." He said, already leading the way.

I followed, smiling. We hadn't been on a real date for awhile. Lately, we'd been 'sneaking around.' I told my parents that I was seeing a movie with a friend, or that I was at Drew's playing videogames. But really, we were cuddled up on the couch in Kyle's Living Room. His parents were Pagan and didn't seem disturbed by our relationship. His mother actually encouraged it.

"Change of plans." He said, turning suddenly. I watched as he pulled his keys from his hoodie and hit the "unlock" button.

"_What are you doing?" _

Only, I never got to finish the question. Almost as soon as I'd opened my mouth, he'd pulled me forward.

Pressing me against the car, he pressed a soft kiss against my lips.

"Fuck Starbucks, we have a perfectly good hook-up opportunity here!"

I rolled my eyes. Kyle was always spirited and reckless. Everything was spur of the moment with him. Not that I minded.

He kissed me again, a little deeper, and ground me against the shell of the car. Our tongues fought for dominance. Naturally, Kyle won.

"Damien," he hummed against my neck once we'd come up for air.

"Yeah?"

"Get into the frigging car."

-/-

When I got home, my parents were waiting in the Dining Room. I was late, but I had already come up with an excuse.

"Damien, honey?" my mother called for me.

"Yeah?" I said, completely prepared to tell them I'd gotten caught in traffic.

"Your father and I would like to have a talk with you."

I didn't usually get into trouble. In fact, I didn't even remember being grounded in the past. So, I was out of my element when they called me into the kitchen.

"So… What's up?" I tried.

"Your father and I thought we'd talk to you about temptation." They shared a look as she spoke.

My mind had just about stopped working.

"I was at the mall earlier," dad said, looking down.

_There was no way… He couldn't have…_

"Damien," mom said, forcing me to look back at her. She had a pained expression on her face, as if she were forcing herself to keep calm. "I think you know what we're getting at. I don't think you should continuing seeing that boy."

"Mom?"

"It's just, he's pulling you astray. The devil creates temptation in all of us, but we must ignore it."

"Are you saying Kyle… is from hell or something?"

"Well… I've heard some things from Nancy about his family. They don't attend church and last year I saw the wife at that Satanic shop downtown." Ah, good old Nancy. She was the town gossip and my mother's closest friend.

"Mom, Spirit-Bound is a Wiccan shop."

"So they are heathens!" My father had said it as though he'd just been proven right. Clearly, they'd been discussing this before I'd come home.

"Regardless of their religious views, the _Wolf-frame_ boy is clearly… distracting you from life. He's dragging you away from the path of righteousness!"

"It's pronounced Von-rom, and he isn't leading me astray!"

"Dear, he was kissing you."

"I was kissing him."

My father struck blindly. Mother would later claim he didn't mean to. That he was just upset and not thinking at the moment. I wanted to tell her that he'd given into temptation at that moment, but knew it'd only make matters worse.

I ended up stomping to my room like a child. My phone and laptop had both been taken from me. Along with that torture, I doubted they'd let me leave the house alone any time soon.

-/-

**Will be updated soon! I promise! **


	2. Whataya Want From Me

_Beta Reader? Anybody? _

_**~N.S~**_

"They found out?"

Somehow my parents had let me go to school. They knew Kyle was there, giving me 'the gay,' but it wasn't like we could afford Private School. I was treating our study hall together like a visitation privilege.

"Yeah, but I think dad booked it before anything happened." I said, thinking how fortunate that was. I could only imagine what they'd think if they'd seen me get into his car.

"He the one who gave you that?" Kyle pointed to the bruise just under my eye.

I nodded without meeting his eyes. It was still something of a shock. My dad had never raised a hand to my sister or me before.

We sat in silence for a minute. Well, maybe not silence. The scratching of pencils and whispered conversations surrounded us.

"Damien," he paused, "We could leave, you know?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we could run off together. If that's how your dad's going to react to you coming out…"

"It was my fault; I said something I shouldn't have."

"It's not your fault!" Kyle hissed, "You're the victim here!"

I almost laughed, "I think you're over-reacting."

"You seriously think it's going to end here?"

"'_Do you seriously_,' you mean." It was always easier to avoid the subject by correcting someone's grammar.

"Yeah, whatever. The point is, Damien, next time your dad hits you… Well, you won't be able to say I didn't warn you."

I rolled my eyes. There wouldn't be a 'next time.' "Can we talk about something else?"

Kyle nodded, still obviously concerned.

"Where would we go? Don't run-away teens usually get picked up by the police?"

Kyle laughed. "Sweetie, have you seen the cops in this town?"

I laughed. It was true; the local police force was about useless. But that still left my first question unanswered.

"Where would we go though?"

"Well, you could hide out at my house. Then, once things settled down a little, my parents could send us to live with my aunt."

I rolled my eyes, "If I go missing, your house will be the first place they search."

"Then go to my aunt's! You'd just have to wait a couple months for me!"

I shook my head, "You're insane."

Kyle huffed. "You're calling me insane?"

The bell rang and we headed to Biology. Ironically, this week we were to pair up with another student and basically "have a baby" with them. Technically, the lesion was to teach us about genetics. But, seriously, when you tell a bunch of Freshmen that they're going to be reproducing with one another, you have to expect a couple giggles.

No one but the teacher was surprised when I paired up with Kyle. And even she didn't say anything, because most people were sticking with their friends anyway.

**~N.S~**

"Damien," my mother greeted me as soon as I opened the door. She was cuddled up in a comforter on the couch, nursing a mug of coffee. She looked tired. Probably stressing all day over her son's "illness."

"Hey," I replied lamely.

"How was school?"

"Fine," Though it was clear from my tone that I wasn't in the mood for small-talk.

She seemed to understand and set the mug down with a soft clunk.

"Honey, you know that homosexuality is a sin, right?"

_If you're such a good Christian, why did you name me after the Anti-Christ?_

"Mom-"

"Listen, I'm just worried about you!"

But she didn't sound worried. She sounded irritated… Well, maybe pissed off was a better way to say it.

"We've done everything to bring you up right, and yet… Yet…" She shook her head. It was as though admitting I was gay was so terrible she couldn't say it.

My eyes were beginning to water so I covered them with a hand. "This is who I am." My voice was shaky but the tone determined.

I didn't hear her get up. But her arms wrapped around me and pulled me close. A few minutes later found us crying together. Eventually we took our sob-feast over to the couch and turned on Hallmark. Sometimes watching other people go through hell makes your life seem a lot better.

_Damien's dad returned home an hour later. The boy had falling asleep watching TV and his mother had gone into the kitchen. Standing over his son, the elder Maslin looked down at the mark he'd made the night before. Why had that been so natural? So easy?_

_He'd been pondering that all day._

_Without thought, he lightly touched the bruise. Still unconscious, Damien's face contorted in sight pain. _

_A rough hand pulled the comforter up and around the boy. His son. His only son._

_**~N.S~**_

_Sorry for the short chapter. I promise the next will be much longer; I just wanted to upload this quickly. (:  
__**BETA READER NEEDED!**_


	3. Farewell

**I'm sorry to have not updated in so long. I know not all of you know this, but I've been sick for a very long time and now, I've found out that I'm dying. If anyone wants to "adopt" this story or any of my others you may all feel free to do so. Good bye and love from Rhiannon, aka Nowaki Star**


End file.
